Marblehead Fire Dept. now boasts three 'HazMat' technicians

Thursday

Jun 19, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 19, 2014 at 8:03 AM

By William J. Dowdwdowd@wickedlocal.com

Marblehead Fire Department now claims three firefighters trained in responding to hazardous-material incidents.Firefighters Jeff Martin and Steve Bivens recently completed an extensive course at the Stow-based Massachusetts Firefighting Academy and passed state examinations to become certified Hazardous Materials “HazMat” Technicians.Until now, Eric Ridge had been the local fire company's sole firefighter with the hard-earned designation.“It's an advanced training program. It's one of the more in-depth HazMat programs in the country,” Martin said. “The opportunity was there, and I talked to Steve – he's a go-getter – so we decided to take the class together.”The two committed themselves to the all-encompassing, 305-hour training, spending 125 hours in the classroom, 80-hours in online instruction and 100-hours in hands on practical experience to obtain certification.“It was a pretty big commitment,” said Bivens.Over the course's six weeks, the two acquired an array of skills to tackle and deal with hazardous materials, covering topics from recognizing improvised explosive devices, chemicals, understanding radiation, hazard assessment and risk evaluation to monitoring air quality using field equipment.But, most importantly, they learned necessary steps to decontaminate and terminate dangerous solids, liquids and gasses possessing an eminent threat to the public, property and environment.Their technician-status qualifies them to serve on Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' hazardous-materials response teams, a what many call innovative response program that is divided into six districts covering the commonwealth's 351 communities.Each district's team can be deployed to tackle any hazardous-material incident within the hour.“Say a tanker rolls over or a train derails, and either of them are hauling hazardous materials that spills, the HazMat team sections off an area and would neutralize it,” Bivens said, adding that, if the materials had not yet spilled or exploded, crews would prevent or mitigate a worst-case scenario.Bivens noted firefighters often tend to hazardous-material scenes clad in so-called “chemical protective clothing.” Think of the rubber-looking suits that characters Walter White and Jesse Pinkman wear in “Breaking Bad” when they manufacture a certain illegal blue substance, only technicians wear theirs to do good.Marblehead is one of 78 communities that fall within the sixth-district HazMat team, on which approximately 50 firefighters serve.Impressively, each district team member is an expert in knowing the hazardous materials fixed facilities in their district use, such as Salem's Power Plant, that could spawn a dangerous incident.“Knowing your town's potential hazards helps, but being on the HazMat team, you've got a lot more to learn about,” Martin said.Martin said once a firefighter lands a spot on a team – even if they're off-duty – they could get called into a HazMat scene.As of right now, however, no vacancies exist for the duo to join the district's HazMat team's ranks.“It's kind of like when a spot on a fire department becomes available,” said Martin. “You need guys to retire to get on.”Yet, their training adds another layer of expertise to the town's professional firefighting force. Going forward, Bivens and Martin will be required to continue training to keep their certification.On the whole experience, both said they enjoyed taking the course and said it brought them up to speed on the evolving challenges that come with their public-service profession.“It's a long course, but Steve and I had fun with it,” Martin said. “You've got to have fun with it, and it helps when you're with other people who want to take the course because they know what it entails.”